Monday, May 28, 2012

Every now and then one of my customers using Core Data Editor sends me a Core Data related question via e-mail. The last Core Data related question I got went like this:

I have a Core Data Document-Based application that is using the SQLite store. When I activate sandboxing I am not able to save the context anymore. Why is that and how can I work around this problem?

This question really caught my interest. Here is what I found out:

The save fails because the underlying SQLite library created temporary files on behalf of Core Data. You may have seen a file like this. Usually this file has the suffix "-journal". When you activate sandboxing your application is only are allowed to read and write to the store file itself and not to the "-journal" file. This explains why the save of the context fails. Until Apple has fixed this you can work around this by deactivating the creation of journal files. You can do this by sending the following pragma statement to the SQLite database:

pragma journal_mode OFF
orpragma journal_mode MEMORY

Let me explain:The first pragma statement completely disables the journaling of SQLite. You usually don't want to do this because you can't do a rollback anymore. The second pragma statement has less dramatic side effects: You can still rollback but the bookkeeping is done in memory. If your transactions are small this won't be a problem but you should be aware of the side effects.
Now that we know that its time to think about Core Data again. Core Data does not expose the SQLite database handle to the developer - with good reasons. Nevertheless there is a way that allows us to send the pragma statement to the SQLite database used by the SQLite store. When you add a persistent store to a coordinator you can specify an options dictionary. There is a key called NSSQLitePragmasOption that lets you specify another dictionary that contains the pragma statements you want to be executed by the SQLite store. I have described the procedure on Stackoverflow.com. Here is the code snippet that sets the journal mode to MEMORY:

It was a long journey but I am pleased to announce that Flashcards Pro for iPad is now available in the App Store. Flashcards Pro is beautiful and easy to use application, that helps you learn new things quickly and efficiently. Here is a short video I made that should give you a good impression:

Over the next several months the iPad application will become a universal application that also runs on your iPhone and iPod Touch. The Mac application will also get a major update. The plan is to enable iCloud as soon the Mac application has been updated or the iPad app became universal. If you have feedback please send it directly to me via email.